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press freedom

For journalists, newsrooms have always been somewhat of a sanctuary. The bustling, deadline environment; voices raised across the cubicles or hushed in corner groupings of gossip or story deliberation. The busier the newsroom the greater the sense of calm and belonging journalists feel there. And while no longer smoky, and in some cases without police squawk boxes or photo desks, just the feeling one gets when encountering rows of journalists hard at work on today or tomorrow’s news invokes a secure feeling of being at the center of something.

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The World News Media Congress has always served as a great opportunity for the industry to collectively look in the mirror, to reflect on where we are, where we’ve been and where we need to go. When it comes to gender diversity, the events of last week in Portugal convince me that while we have made progress, we have a long way to go.

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Looking back on Claude Bellanger's legacy, WAN-IFRA CEO Vincent Peyrègne explores how the founder's motivations are still the driving force behind WAN-IFRA's efforts to champion sustainable model for news in the digital age, freedom of expression and the rights of journalists around the world.

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From Watergate to the Panama Papers, investigative journalism that relies on confidential sources and whistleblowers has proven essential to the maintenance of democracies and open societies internationally, writes journalist and researcher Julie Posetti.

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US President Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey don’t agree on much anymore. One of the more alarming sentiments they did share near the end of Comey’s chaotic tenure last year was an exchange in which Trump suggested that journalists might talk about their sources “if they spent a couple days in jail,” according to a Comey memo released as part of his book tour. Comey said he laughed at the suggestion.

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The Turkish President Erdoğan’s habit of confiscating cigarettes and eliciting a promise from the owners to give up famously involved the Bulgarian Foreign Minister in 2016, and inspired the Cumhuriyet columnist Kadri Gürsel’s comment 'Erdoğan Wants to Become the New Father to Turks'. Last week, Gürsel was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for his comments that included, ‘Turkey only needs a rebellious child like Muhammad Buazizi, who provided the spark that toppled the Tunisian dictator.’

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Amid the growing threat to journalists’ safety in many parts of the world, a collaborative project called Forbidden Stories is working towards combating this unsettling trend by pursuing the stories of journalists who can no longer continue their work because they have been threatened, imprisoned or killed.

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As readers around the world increasingly get their news online, the media industry has struggled to balance making readers pay for their news and keeping information accessible. Should readers have to pay for their digital news and if not, how do news organizations stay afloat in the digital age?